Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-12
A TERRIBLE COLLISION.
Two Trains Meet on a
Burning Bridge.
SOUL NARROWING SCENES.
The Cars in Flames-Dawn breaks
on a Scene of Death-200 Vic
tims-150 Injured.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD

tlmS-l5O injured.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD
CHICAGO, August II. - Dispatches
from Peoria say that passenger
traiu of fifteen cars, en- route to Mag
ara Falls, on the Toledo, Peoria and
Western railroad, went through a
bridge at Chatsworth, Ill. during the
night, and 100 people were killed and
injured. A relief train of twenty-four
cars has gone to the scene of the dis
aster from there.
MORE DEFINITE NEWS.
The conductor of the Chicago and
Alton passenger train which just ar
rived at Chicago from Bloomington,
where the Peoria and Warsaw and
Chicago and Alton railways connect,
learned from one of the conductors oi
the first-named road that the accident
occurred near Piper, a small station
east of Chatsworth.
NET ON THE BRIDGE.
The excursion train, while on the
bridge near Piper City, came in col
lision with another going in the OPP
posite direction. The cars of the
excursion train were piled on each
other in fearful confusion and from
the shock of the collision the bridge
gave way and several cars were pre-
cipitated into slough.
TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
The accident occurred some time
between midnight and A. NJ. The
excursion train was made up at Ploom-
ington, ILL.,, last night and proceeded
from there on the Illinois Central
road to Chatsworth, and there changed
to the Toledo road, ON which line the
accident occurred.
SCENE AT THE WRECK.
When the relief train reached its
destination a sad and ghastly sight
was brought to view. Ten coaches
had either gone through the bridge or
were piled in a promiscuous heap
crosswise and lengthwise of the track.
The shrieks and groans of the wounded
and diving resounded on the air. The
bridge through which the cars went
was a small one and had been on fire,
which was the cause of its breaking.
So far over seventy bodies have been
recovered. They were conveyed to
the town hall school house and on the
depot platform. No one has been
taken from under the cars and not
even sound can be heard from them.
1t is feared that all are dead and the
number killed is estimated at 200.
The wounded so far number $50.
FURTHER PARTICULARS.
A Times special from Forest, ILL.,,
gives the following particulars OF the
train wreck near Chatsworth. The
train was carrying $50 passengers.
When it drew out of Peoria 1t was
loaded to it's utmost capacity. Every
berth in the six sleepers was taken,
and the day cars carried sixty people
each. The train was SO heavy that
two engines were hitched to it.
GOING AT FULL SPEED.
Chatsworth, the next station east of
here is six miles off, and the run
there was made in seven minutes, so
the terrible momentum OF the coaches
and two heavy engines flying at the
rate of mile a minute can be under
stood. As the train came laundering
down on the bridge the engineer on
the front engine was horifed to see
that the bridge was on fire. There
was no chance to stop, and had there
been warning, it would have taken
mile to stop in.
MIRACULOUS ESCAPES.
The first engine kept the rails, but
as it went over the bridge fell beneath
it and it could only have been the ter.
rife speed of the train which saved
the lives of the engineer and his fire.
man. The next engine went down
instantly, the coaches were piled on
TOP of another and in the twinkling OF
an eve nearly one hundred people
found instant death and fifty more
were so badly hurt that they could not
live. As for the wounded they were
everywhere. Only the sleeping coaches
ESCAPED and as the startled and half
dressed passengers came out OF them
they found such
SCENE OF DEATH
As is rarely witnessed. 1t lacked five
minutes OF midnight. Down in the
ditch Law the second engine, Engineer
McClintock dead and Fireman Apple
gate badly injured. On top were piled
the three baggage cars on top OF each
other. like a child's card house after
he has swept it with his hand. Then
came the six day-coaches. They were
telescoped as cars never were before,
and three of them were pressed INTO
lust space enough for one. The second
car had mounted off its trucks, crushed
through the car ahead of it, crushing
woodwork aside like tinder and lay
there resting on the tops OF the seats,
while every passenger in the 'front.' car
was lying dead and dying underneath.
Out of that car but four people came
alive. On top of the second car lay
the third. Its bottom was smeared
with
THE BLOOD OF IT'S VICTIMS.
The other three cars were not SO
badly crushed, but they were broken
I and twisted in every conceivable way
Instantly the air was filled with the
cries of the wounded and the shrieks
of the dying.
THE TRAIN CATCHES FIRE.
There was another terrible danger
vet to be met. The bridge was still
burning and the wrecked cars were lay
ing around fiercely burning. Every
where in the wreck were the wounded
and unhurt men, women and children
whose lives could have been saved i
they could have been gotten out, bu
whose death, and death in it's mos
horrible form was certain, if the twisted
wood of the broken cars caught fire.
NO WATER TO BE HAD.
To fight the fire there was not drol